Take control 2020: COVID sucks but we won’t give up

COVID has kicked our collective butts. Doctors and scientists are working day and night to save our lives. Now I want to help you save your business. Let's take control.

This year is off to a rough start. Are you ready to shake off the funk and take control? I am.

Can a business get depressed?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been down. It’s spring. I’m supposed to be recharging. After a dreary northeast Ohio winter, I need to get out and enjoy life. Not this year.

I’m trapped at home by my state’s stay-at-home order. My day-to-day life has been turned upside-down. I’m trying to help my wife and daughter – both much more social than I am. So much stress and it isn’t ending.

Did you know that many of the symptoms of chronic stress are the same as the symptoms of depression? Regardless of your previous mental and emotional health, COVID is effectively giving us all depression.

And if you’re like me, you are your business. When you’re sick, your business is sick. When you’re tired, your business is tired. When you’re depressed, your business is depressed.

It can spiral from there. Depression leads to poor performance leads to depression leads to poor performance. It spirals and spirals unless you stop it.

Reverse the spiral

If you’re stuck in the spiral, here are 3 things I recommend.

Take control where you can

Part of the funk is feeling helpless. The cure starts with proving it isn’t true.

Make something

He’s a best-selling author so I won’t try to out write him. Suffice to say, he’s a smart guy. You should try it out.

Help someone

As bad as this is… as bad as it could get, the odds are 1 in 7.53 billion that you have it the worst.

If you’re that person, I feel so horrible for you.

Otherwise, someone has it worse than you. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s the power of community.

While our options are limited right now, you can still help. Why not start by giving someone a heartfelt thank-you.

Beyond that, it’s on you. Keep reading to see what I’m doing.

Josh’s Take Control 2020 project

I’ve noticed a lot of businesses and NPOs struggling to share information with their clients and customers. If they can’t broadcast information, actually connecting with people is impossible.

Outdated tactics aren’t going to cut it.
Facebook, Twitter – any social media – none of them will reach your entire audience. (And if you’re on their platform, it’s their audience, not yours.)
“Websites are too complicated” isn’t an acceptable excuse.

With stay-at-home orders and social distancing, we must create digital closeness – even if just least for now.

My Take Control 2020 project is designed to help you take back a little control of your business. I want you to be able to use your website like the incredible tool that it is.

This isn’t a magic pill. I can’t promise that it will save your business. It certainly won’t work for every business. But if your business is going down, don’t let it go down without a fight.

The Take Control 2020 project has 3 key areas:

On-demand Education
I’ve rebuilt this site (and reorganized a lot of resources) to focus on education. I want to help you use your website to share information and connect with your customers and clients. The goal is to provide both free and premium training (I have to keep my lights on, too).

Reduced prices
I’m reducing my prices for projects and training related to taking control of your digital marketing and online presence. Relevant design/development projects will be quoted at cost (as best as possible). I’m doubling training times. Book an hour of “take control” type training and I’ll give you a code for a free hour. If you’re not sure, send me a message or schedule a call and we’ll discuss it.

Live, weekly training – already changed – see below
Starting next week, I will host a free office hours session. The intent is to provide a (digital) place for you to drop in and get your questions answered. The focus will be website design (the how, the what, and the why) with an emphasis on WordPress.

The Take control Newsletter

A weekly newsletter focused on helping you take control of your website and turn it into a remarkable marking tool.

Email

Hours

Monday
10:00
-
16:00

Tuesday
10:00
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16:00

Wednesday
10:00
-
16:00

Thursday
10:00
-
16:00

Friday
10:00
-
16:00

Saturday
Closed

Sunday
Closed

Mission

I will help small businesses and NPOs plan, develop, and operate professional websites that they will be proud of and their audience will actually use until we’re free from crappy, hard-to-use websites.